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Monday, April 23, 2012

“One-Two-Threeeeeeee!” It was such a brief moment but as I
pushed my little guy in his stroller on a walk this morning I sensed God
reminding me to embrace and focus on His love and joy!

I was distracting my little boy from his desire to be out of
the confines of his stroller; and as my little guy smiled with delight from my
great distraction technique. I got the message.Keep going.Stay focused on the
joy I have for you.

I too have moments like my little boy that I want to cry out
with frustration of where I am at any given moment.And just like I encouragingly distracted my
boy with a, “One-two-threeeeeeeee!” and a zip of a push –my God is doing the
same and taking me on a wild ride—distracting me from the things I could so
easily become frustrated and crying about—when I let Him.

Stay focused on what’s ahead—“One, Two, Threeeee!” I sensed God smiling and zipping me around on
our walk showing me the birds, chirping in the trees and the wind wrestling
through the trees and even the occasional car zooming down the road.

My sis using another distraction technique on my boy while he was sitting in his stroller another time--that brought both of them joy!

As my boy smiled more and more, I saw he was content to sit
in his stroller and enjoy the ride.Oh,
how I want to enjoy this ride..don’t you?

What helps you stay focused on joy and enjoy the ride of life?

How about trying this the next time you sense irritations
beginning to rob you of joy and the peace of His loving presence in this ride
of life. Write down this
three-letter word on a piece of paper, “JOY!”Post it wherever you will see it often during the day to remind you what
God wants to give you for yourself and for you to share on this ride.Then with your biggest kid-like voice, zip on into the day exclaiming, “One, Two, Threeeeee!”

“You
will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and
the pleasures of living with you forever. “ (Psalm 16:11 NLT)

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

“Panini!” We giggled and talked about this squished grilled sandwich on a recent road trip.

I don’t normally crave bread—I just don’t—don’t hate
me. But I have found myself thinking
about it often these past few days and remembering this one deli I visited
often with some former co-workers years ago…oh they served up a yummy
Panini!

While driving home from a retreat, my girlfriend and I were talking about a story we had heard
recently and how the characters in the story reflected our lives in a way. Panini was the name that just kept coming out
when we couldn’t remember the antagonist’s name, Peninnah in the story of 1
Samuel.

You see Panini had it and Hannah didn’t—but Panini wasn’t
satisfied with what she had, and her blessing of many children surely didn’t
keep her busy enough that she had extra energy to taunt Hannah. Maybe Panini’s heart was squashed much like a
real Panini sandwich when she saw the favor her husband, Elkanah showed
Hannah. Maybe seeing this favor reigning
from the Lord on Hannah, turned up the heat in Panini’s heart stirring up all
kinds of evil and jealousy; causing Panini to ooze out all kinds of messy
emotions and words.

Is there a Panini in your life? Are you acting like Panini? (We are capable of both)

Can you handle seeing another granted favor and be truly
happy for them—even encourage them and help them?

I know at times Panini’s hot, messy, squashed heart may
resemble mine especially when I am focused on comparing my life with someone
else’s, and not fully believing and living out who I am in Christ.

I also have experienced a Panini or two squishing and oozing
their mess a little too close to my heart. It is not pretty and just so unexpected.

What do we then do with that?

Have you like Hannah found yourself praying out of great
anguish and grief? Journal pages and
hard pavement have been good places for me to pound out the Panini pain.

It hurts to be squished by or like a Panini. A Panini can squash with harsh words, looks
of disdain or maybe there are no words at all to communicate disapproval—sometimes
the absence of our encouraging words hurt the most. Or maybe, it is the ‘un-friend’ action on
Facebook, or the absence of that ‘like’ or comment on your Facebook post,
right?? (Seriously, we need to live beyond
Facebook, but it’s there isn’t it?)

In the midst of Hannah’s hurt, it says she stood
up—and, “…wept much and prayed to the LORD.” (1 Sam 1:10)
Don’t you just love that—she had the courage to stand and talk with her
God in the midst of it all! Sometimes
all I want is a good cry in my pillow.

This reminds me of what I heard singer/songwriter Beckah
Shae say on Girlfriendit Radio a few weeks back, “To see yourself the way that
God sees you is the beginning to freedom.”
(You can listen to the podcast of the "Put Your Love Glasses On," show here).

The words stood up and stand is rising up above
the page for me both in my Bible and in my head as I think about the truth in
Beckah Shae’s comment. Freedom to stand…YES!

Stand firm, then…(Galations 5:1)

Stand at the crossroads…(Jer 6:16)

Stand firm and you will see the deliverance of the
LORD…(Exodus 14:13)

I can’t help but giggle a little as I picture this truth of
standing up and believing we are who God says we are, not what some squashed
sandwich may express to us…really?!?

I’m not sure why the word Panini has stuck with me these
last couple of weeks, but I’m giggling and I think this is good because like
Patty and Lisa also talk about on their radio show, laughter is needed to
diffuse the pain and it helps us not water the seed of pain allowing anger and
bitterness to grow. If you wanna get
your teary-eyes off the pillow and laugh
some more, keep listening to this particular show, for Patty and Lisa chat with comedian
Kerri Pomarolli next…she is a hoot and literally stands up for truth!

It’s time to stand up girls—seek our God who
loves us and has great things for us and take that Panini sandwich and feed it
to the birds!

(Or like me, the ducks I saw on my walk this morning—God
loves me this I know, for He reminded me this morning to quit giving the Paninis in my life any volume and feed the Panini to the
ducks! And God loves me no less or no
more than He loves you—no joke!)

Monday, April 9, 2012

Have you ever just wanted to just throw your arms up—you
know give up and quit???

Life can be hard sometimes.
I realized these last few weeks that something or maybe someone or
some-thought has been tugging on my heart-my to do list-my brain…

My to do list keeps growing with cares and concerns and God
keeps bringing me assignments all the while growing me and allowing me to
partake in some awesome new experiences.
In the busyness of the moment I am tempted to say things like, “I can’t
do this,” “This is too hard,” “I’m not
cut out for this,” “I want to stop-quit-return to a quiet life.”

As I realize my nature, my true self prone to run away from
what God has for me at times, I see my little boy all this week determined more
and more to walk; more and more to get up after each
fall, more and more to throw his hands up in surrender and thus
smiling more and more.

This all reminds me of my new nature-my new self being
renewed because of Christ…more and more. (Col 3:10)

When Jesus has the wheel of our locomotive—it is a wild
ride! God has been showing me recently
what it looks like to have peace like a river (Isaiah 66:12).

We had some family photos taken this weekend and I had some
time to just pause and stare at some fast-flowing water falling down a small
bed of rocks. I recognized my energetic
toddler was mesmerized for a moment with the flowing water and we both
paused.

For a moment—every care from the week behind and the week
ahead dissipated in the rushing water and I knew Jesus was close—I felt His
Presence and His Peace.

His peace He gives us—even amidst the chaos of this
life.

If I look at my to do list this week, I sense my heart begin
to race a little bit. Can any one else
relate?

Something in me is nudging me to cry out His name…Jesus is
here and will help me.

I think I am going to go run into my closet where no one
else can see me and just throw up my arms in sweet surrender.

Go on…you do the same.
Let’s enjoy this ride of life, no matter how hard it is—no matter how
scary and fast flowing the rapids become—Let’s live determined to enjoy this
life and smile more and more!

In
its place you have clothed yourselves with a brand-new nature that is
continually being renewed as you learn more
and more about Christ, who created this new nature within you.

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Who is this J-Girl?

So J-Girl is the affectionate name my husband called me over 15 years ago and it reminds me that God has placed his affection on me and has chosen me (Deut 7:7)…along with you sweet girlfriend. Please call me Julie; that’s what my family and friends call me. I am really just an average wife, mother, daughter, sister, aunt, friend…with a story…a God given story. The most recent chapter of this story involves mothering the new precious gift in our family, writing as God nudges and joining other teams of servants at Mending the Soul Ministries and the movement Girlfriendit where I am frequently encouraged to awaken the parts of my heart that God desires to use to bring life to both myself and those around me.